Combat rifle scopes and a backup plan
When you mount your rifle scope, please do some research on how to properly level and mount it. A properly mounted combat optic should not be over torqued and should have loctite on the screws. I have yet to see a mount come loose on a gun that used loctite. When you go out an spend $1000 on a combat rifle scope, ask yourself, what will you do and how will you remove the scope and aim it if the optic goes down. If one your Trijicon rifle scopes takes a bullet, are you going to be able to see through it and still be able to lay down effective fire if you can’t see through it? Even if you have a rifle scope that does not allow for co-witness, would it be a good idea to still attach flip up sights to the gun if there is room for them? Always have a backup plan for your defensive carbine.
The vast majority of M4 Carbines I see at the range have optics that are top of the line. Aimpoint and Eotech along with the Trijicon ACOG are probable the top 3. All of these are good for a certain purpose which is mostly for close up fighting. The Trijicon ACOG is more of a medium range combat optic depending on the type of reticle you choose. They do have a line of red dot or even green dot optic options, also. If you are are a weekend warrior and new to defensive shooting and tactical gear, I would suggest you think about this next statement, whenever you attach an accessory to your Carbine, think about what you would do if that accessory mount broke or the actual item failed.
When I shot my first Sig 229 in .357 Sig the thing that impressed me the most was the flat shooting trajectory. One of the biggest issues I’ve had shooting 45acp was the adjustments I had to make in bullet trajectory when shooting with my fixed 1911 sights. Bullet impact may not be something to worry about in close home situations for some people, but for my shooting styles, I want to know exactly where my bullets are going to go from 10-50yds. I know that bullet weights can make a difference, but I’ve always thought that 230gr FMJ was the proper thing to send downrange from a 1911. Although I love my 45acp guns, I don’t use them as defensive weapons. The .357 Sig always seemed to be a step up from the 45acp in certain aspects, like penetration and trajectory. For Law Enforcement, running into bad guns with body armor is become more and more common and the only thing around that these days is a more powerful firearm.
There are firearms that are going to need a lot of attention when it comes to changing parts or doing upgrades on them. I think it’s a good idea to drop off the gun and the parts with a gun smith unless you know for sure that the part you have is a “drop in”. From my experience, most gun parts and accessories will need some fitting. This is where people tend to break rifle stocks or rails because they start forcing things when they really should be filing something. I know several gun shops that get tired of people calling them up and claiming that a firegrip or rifle stock was broken, when the gunsmith knows how it really happened. I did several AK stock changes and every one of them was different. I even found areas that need to be filed down where on similiar guns, it just snapped right in.
I think more than half the guns I have picked up for my collection were police trade ins. CDNN investments is always one of the best places to find used handguns. If you are a Glock, Sig or Beretta gun lover. Check out their yearly catalog for used but hardly shot guns. I picked up a Glock 17 a few month ago and like many of the guns that are trade ins, this gun had mostly holster wear on the outside. One of my friends got one that was much more worn especially around the barrel. While something like barrel wear has to be analyzed closely, it rarely is much of a concern to me. Many of the used firearms you find in gun shops probable have less than 500rds through them and the reason they look beat up is because of the holsters that they were used with and the fact the owner didn’t clean them very well.
There is another issue that I see come up when taking new students to the range. I usually bring various military style rifles with me to get people to adjust to recoil and realize the common military style weapons that exist in the world. Many of these individuals, after a day on the range tend to select the gun that fit them the best. When I first got into shooting rifles, I started out with all of the military surplus firearms that came into the Country in the early and mid 1990s. There may never be another time where Soviet style weapons are imported into this Country. The military warehouses got cleaned out after the fall of the Soviet Empire and American gun owners were the beneficieries.
We all know that Glocks are tough, I won’t say they are the toughest because there are other guns out there that may be as tough, but they are in the top tier of firearms. We know that everyone likes to talk and argue about all of the flaws in firearms and which guns are more reliable than others. Some handguns are meant for concealment and are not combat worthy and aren’t expect to put 500rds through them without cleaning to function flawlessly.